Psychophysical experiments and a neural network model of binocular rivalry

The alternation process in binocular rivalry was examined by psychophysical experiments. The stimulus strength to the central part of the visual field in one eye was varied while the stimulus strength in the other eye remained constant. The data obtained by the experiments indicate that the variations in stimulus strength alter the mean dominance duration, variance and predominance, and the frequency histogram of the dominance duration almost fits to the gamma distribution. To explain these results, a model which consists of neural elements receiving impulse trains with stochastic fluctuations is proposed and the experimental results are simulated on a computer using the model. Although the present model is restricted to explain only the rivalry between two lines which have different orientations, we could obtain agreement between the simulation results and the experimental results by giving appropriate values for some parameters of the model.